Behaving Like the Bride of Christ 2: By Praying Effective, Radical Prayers without Getting Burned

^{James 5:16
16 “}Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].” AMP

 

We have entered times in which we need to actively take the Kingdom by force. This is essential since we have entered our promised lands and need to move strategically with the lead of the Holy Spirit in order to successfully see the removal of the giants in our land and receive the spoils which are our promises that we have steadfastly been praying, fasting, warring, and seeking wisdom for us to possess. Now as we take the Kingdom by force, one important tool in God’s arsenal is our praying radically for the manifestation of those things we can see with our spiritual eye that are practically within our reach, and that we call forth as though they are. 

But one important aspect of praying radical prayers is not only recognizing that we are the righteousness of God through our faith in Christ Jesus and through our belief and trust in Him as God’s Son (Romans 3:22). The other side of that coin is that when we pray these radical prayers, we must be found with clean hands and a pure heart. We obtain these when we yield to God’s process in the wilderness of testing that ensures we will be purified as gold. Psalm 24:3-6 says,

“^3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.

^5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.” MSG

One main reason is that when we are being purified in the fiery furnace, God is taking great care in removing the dirt and the dross that makes us ineffective vessels in His arsenal against the enemy and his tactics. We know we inherited the sin of rebellion from Adam and Eve, therefore, it must be purged out of us. Every time we reach a new dimension or level in the spirit, more righteousness and holiness is required from us. We can see that in the beatitudes Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount as it says initially that we are blessed when we demonstrate we are poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3).

This means that acknowledging we can do nothing without God and cling to Him tight should be our posture since we do not know our way in this new dimension and need Him. As God demonstrates His greatness in and through our lives, He will prompt us to get rid of everything that poses as a hindrance to our victories and the manifestation of His glory we are seeking after. The other sign that shows this is necessary is found in verses 10-12. 

Because warfare has erupted against us, we cannot obtain the victories of the battles and of the war, God fights for us without first inquiring of the Lord and seeking how to engage the enemy and enforce the victories given to us at Calvary. The reward shown in both, verses 3 and 10 for doing this is that the Kingdom of heaven is given to us now and forever (the resources and everything needed) to accomplish what God has called us to do and has purposed for our lives in this season. 

Another reason this is important is that every generation is called to fight the Antichrist enemy that opposes the advancement of the Kingdom in the earth through us (Exodus 17:16). Thus, in order for our prayers to be effective, we need to confess our trespasses to God and those we trust in order to receive the healing and deliverance we need from the bondage we were under. Otherwise, we cannot call fire on the enemy and not get burned too if we are still under bondage to him.

2 Kings 1:12 says, “And Elijah answered, If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.” AMPC

Luke 9: 52-54 also says, “⁵² And He sent messengers before Him; and they reached and entered a Samaritan village to make [things] ready for Him;

⁵³ But [the people] would not welcome or receive or accept Him, because His face was [set as if He was] going to Jerusalem.

⁵⁴ And when His disciples James and John observed this, they said, Lord, do You wish us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did?” AMPC

Elijah was a man of God who had clean hands and a pure heart after God and the ways of His Kingdom. That is why when he called down fire on the fifty men sent by the king of Samaria (an idolatrous city), who had just received a death sentence from the mouth of Elijah and at the direction of the Lord because when he fell down a lattice and injured himself, instead of inquiring of the Lord for his healing, he sent his men to seek a word from Baal-zebub, a demon, and god of Ekron. 

The death sentence prompted the king to want to kill Elijah, but every time he sent men to seize Elijah, the prophet called down fire. But this fire did not hurt him because he was clean from the demonic influence the men had been sent to seek after. This also says that Elijah did not play games when it came to the removal of the obstructions to the advancement of God’s Kingdom through him which is an aspect of what we do against the enemy and as led by the Spirit of the Lord. But Jesus said in Luke 9:55-56,  

“⁵⁵ But He turned and rebuked and severely censured them. He said, You do not know of what sort of spirit you are,

⁵⁶ For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them from the penalty of eternal death]. And they journeyed on to another village.” AMPC

Jesus said this because of the Grace He made available to men through His death on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins that grant us eternal life when we believe and confess with our hearts that He is the Son of God and that He came to give us the access to a relationship with God the Father and the adoption we had lost with the fall of Adam. But there are some that, after His death, still lived under the influence of the spirit of this world and practiced idolatry, even though they presumed to have been believers.

We see an example of that with the Sons of Sceva. You might have seen other instances they have been used in this blog page to demonstrate things that make us ineffective sons and daughters of the Kingdom of God and for which we need to turn from. Acts 19:11-20 talk about the great miracles God was doing through the apostle Paul in Ephesus, a city that was known for its idolatry and great opulence by the worshipping of other gods. The occult was present in a great way in this city. 

After the sons of Sceva saw the workings of the power of God through the apostle Paul, they decided to go and attempt to do the same by invoking the name of Jesus—something that worked for them until they reached a big obstacle. The difference between their ineffectiveness and Paul’s effectiveness was not just their inexperience. They used the name of Jesus to cast out the demon. That should have been enough to get the job done. 

However, Jesus and the apostle Paul operated at greater dimensions of the glory of God necessary to remove this type of demon that held the stronghold over the city. In other words, the men were in bondage and influenced by this demon and therefore, they could not cast out what was also influencing their lifestyle, their thinking, and their means to obtain riches. Matthew 7:3-5 says,

“¹‘Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’” NKJV

This Scripture reveals the reason why the demon leaped on the men. They used incantations and even cursed others which are some of the manifestations of the Antichrist spirit that was the stronghold over that city. The Scripture says to not judge. This means that they were judgmental, condemning, unforgiving, slanderous, and gossipers of those they did not agree with. They also pursued riches by seeking their good fortune, casting spells, and chanting incantations. These are all manifestations of the influence the demon had over them. So as they tried to cast out the demon out of someone else, this demon made a way for them to taste what they were mocking, cursing, and judging others for. 

In other words, the way was made for the seven men to understand their need of God and of their knowledge of the ways of His Kingdom that would enable them to walk in victory. Hence, their time in the wilderness of fiery testing designed to remove all that demonic influence had just started for them to be counted among God’s sons and daughters—His true Bride that worships Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). 

Not only that, but verses 17 to 20, highlight the result of this incidence. Many people became believers and confessed their sins of idolatry and evil seeking, and even burned their books of incantations that were worth a lot of money. This ended up being a great blow to the camp of the enemy, even though it was caused by the presumption of those who thought that calling down fire was just a popular thing that could make them famous in the region. To Him alone be all the glory.▪

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